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Cultural Hitchhiking in the Matrilineal Whales

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Abstract

Five species of whale with matrilineal social systems (daughters remain with mothers) have remarkably low levels of mitochondrial DNA diversity. Non-heritable matriline-level demography could reduce genetic diversity but the required conditions are not consistent with the natural histories of the matrilineal whales. The diversity of nuclear microsatellites is little reduced in the matrilineal whales arguing against bottlenecks. Selective sweeps of the mitochondrial genome are feasible causes but it is not clear why these only occurred in the matrilineal species. Cultural hitchhiking (cultural selection reducing diversity at neutral genetic loci transmitted in parallel to the culture) is supported in sperm whales which possess suitable matrilineal socio-cultural groups (coda clans). Killer whales are delineated into ecotypes which likely originated culturally. Culture, bottlenecks and selection, as well as their interactions, operating between- or within-ecotypes, may have reduced their mitochondrial diversity. The societies, cultures and genetics of false killer and two pilot whale species are insufficiently known to assess drivers of low mitochondrial diversity.

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Notes

  1. This estimate is not included in Table 1, as n = 87, below the n ≥ 100 threshold for Table 1.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Andy Foote and two anonymous reviewers for detailed and perceptive comments on the manuscript. This study was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Discovery Grant number RGPIN-2014-06534).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, B3H 4J1, Canada

    Hal Whitehead & Felicia Vachon

  2. Department of Biology & Forensic Sciences Programme, Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Canada

    Timothy R. Frasier

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  1. Hal Whitehead
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  2. Felicia Vachon
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Correspondence to Hal Whitehead.

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Hal Whitehead, Felicia Vachon and Timothy R. Frasier declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Edited by Stephen Maxson.

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Whitehead, H., Vachon, F. & Frasier, T.R. Cultural Hitchhiking in the Matrilineal Whales. Behav Genet 47, 324–334 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-017-9840-8

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